B-KRONIEKEN

Pieter T'Jonck

The concept of community is completely alien to Pieter T’Jonck. He feels
morally, affectively or intellectually connected with certain people but
this connection is always a one-to-one relationship and is not linked to
any community-feelings whatsoever. He prefers to keep his professional and
personal life separated. With his closest friends he does not have a
professional connection. Although he does have fairly good acquaintances in
the dance field, he would not call them friends. What keeps him in the
so-called dance community is talking and writing about dance; what pulls
him out is architecture. Because his main occupation is not dance, he is
not completely involved in it. As opposed to thirty years ago, the Brussels
dance community is now “a crossroad of Europe” where lots of things are
happening: lots of performances to see and many discussions going on. The
dance field has also become more reflective. Dancers have become more aware
of the often very marginal position of contemporary dance and of the fact
that dance has little impact on the public space or the imagination of
people. By cultivating this position dancers can take a critical attitude
towards mainstream culture and it allows them to explore alternative ways
to present oneself to others.

About the link between dance and architecture, T’Jonck says that both are
in fact ‘utterly unnecessary’ because strictly speaking, we do not need
them. We have to ask ourselves why those forms of art still exist, what
their importance and relevance is. Another link is that the importance of
‘space’ cannot be underestimated in dance. Choreographers who do not
pay attention to that aspect usually make very bad work. The stage carries
meaning before the dancers even enter it. By performing an action in a
particular space, you create meaning by selecting certain possibilities. A
first important question is how and from where the dancers enter the space.
Compared to the other possibilities and one’s expectations, this choice
creates a specific meaning. Going regularly to performances, T’Jonck has
an overview of recurring elements and tendencies in performances and he
regularly maps those connections.